Myths of the Cherokee · 85 of 220
Myth 57
THE SNAKE MAN Two hunters, both for some reason under a tabu against the meat of a squirrel or turkey, had gone into the woods together. When evening came they found a good camping place and lighted a fire to prepare their supper. One of them had killed several squirrels during the day, and now got ready to broil them over the fire. His companion warned him that if he broke the tabu and ate squirrel meat he would become a snake, but the other laughed and said that was only a conjurer’s story. He went on with his preparation, and when the squirrels were roasted made his supper of them and then lay down beside the fire to sleep. Late that night his companion was aroused by groaning, and on looking around he found the other lying on the ground rolling and twisting in agony, and with the lower part of his body already changed to the body and tail of a large water snake. The man was still able to speak and called loudly for help, but his companion could do nothing, but only sit by and try to comfort him while he watched the arms sink into the body and the skin take on a scaly change that mounted gradually toward the neck, until at last even the head was a serpent’s head and the great snake crawled away from the fire and down the bank into the river.
§ Ask Guru about this passage →Themes
Shapeshifting Transformationtheology
Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. Loki and Odin's transformations in Norse, Math's pigs and Blodeuwedd's owl-shape and Pwyll's exchange with Arawn in the Mabinogion, the Greek Proteus, the Indian dasavatara, Vainamoinen's bird-flight in the Kalevala, Ovid's metamorphoses, the shamanic and witch's capacity for ritual form-change. Distinct from anthropomorphism (divine taking specific human form, single embodiment) in that anthropomorphism establishes a stable form whereas this concept establishes form's plurality and instability.
The central narrative event is the detailed, agonizing metamorphosis of a human hunter into a water snake as a direct consequence of breaking a taboo.
All passages →Related passages · 10 parallels
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 12 (part 6)
“" The Dhyanis ( Pitris ) are those who have evolved their BHUTA ( doubles ) from themselves , which RUPA ( form ) has become the vehicle of monads ( seventh and sixth principles ) that had completed their cycle of transmigration in the thre…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite)|Page 53
“§ 2. Concerning the Forms of Infernal Spirits in their Manifestations Having regard to the nature and antecedents of the Intelligences with which Black Magic professes to be concerned, it must be highly important that the operator should kn…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Secret Teachings of All Ages (Manly P. Hall)|The Elements and Their Inhabitants-e
“The imagination of the Greeks peopled the regions of earth and sea with divinities, to whose agency it attributed the phenomena that our philosophy ascribes to the operation of natural law." Thus, in behalf of the plant it worked with, the…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter XXXI-a
“Again, therefore, still worse than this is the explanation of sacred operations, which assigns as the cause of divination, “ a certain genus of dæmons, which is naturally fraudulent, omniform, and various, and which assumes the appearance o…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
western_esoteric|Transcendental Magic II: The Ritual (Éliphas Lévi)|14. Transmutations-b
“The life of beings is a progressive transformation, and its forms can be deter-mined, renewed, prolonged further, or destroyed sooner.
If the doctrine of metempsychosis were true, might one not say that the debauch represented by Circe rea…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter XI, Section 1a
“CHAPTER XI.
Ar g una said: In consequence of the excellent and mysterious words concerning the relation of the supreme and individual soul,, which you have spoken for my welfare, this delusion of mine is gone away.
O you whose eyes are li…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
theosophy|The Secret Doctrine|Page 14 (part 4)
“I am merged in Sekten." This last sentence gives the corroboration of, and repeats the doctrine of, esoteric Buddhism, for it alludes directly to the fifth principle (Manas), or the most spiritual part of its essence rather, which merges in…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
neoplatonism|Iamblichus: On the Mysteries|Chapter VIII-g
“So that all things are full of divine natures; terrestrial natures receiving the plenitude of such as are celestial, but celestial of supercelestial essences; while every order of things proceeds gradually, in a beautiful descent, from the…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
hinduism|The Bhagavad Gita|Chapter XI, Section 1c
“O infinite lord of gods!
O you pervading the universe!
you are the indestructible, that which is, that which is not, and what is beyond them .
You are the primal god, the ancient being, you are the highest support of this universe .
You…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)
western_esoteric|The Book of Ceremonial Magic (A.E. Waite)|Page 62 (part 5)
“Having read so far, if he come not, write his seal on parchment; put it in a black box, with brimstone, assafœtida and other stinking perfumes; bind the said box with iron wire, hang it on the point of your sword, hold it over the fire of c…”
Shared concept: Shapeshifting Transformation — Form-mutability as a constitutional property of divine and preternatural beings — gods, heroes, spirits, and their human practitioners possessing inherent capacity to alter form across human, animal, plant, or elemental states. (derived)